The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 24

Page 24 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Saturday, November 1953 Tliree iloliere Farces And A Canadian Ph av Music And Drama Edited By Lauretta Thistle Aesthetic Principles From Child At Nepean both played with Father Lc-gsult's amateur group Les Compagnons de St. Laurent, both gave up medicine for the theater, both studied in Paris, and both gambled oa their new company in 1951. Denise Pelletier, Jean -Louis and artistically indefensible Paris, Gabriel Gascon, Gaetan One of Canada's mot distinguished theater companies some critics have called it the most distinguished will be in Ottawa for two nights next week, presenting (wo different programs at Glebe Collegiate. Theatre du Nouveau Monde will begin its two-day engagement on Monday, presenting three Moliere farces, and on Tuesday evening will (also ia French) a play, Le Temps des Lilas, by the young Montreal playwright Marcel Dube. These are the programs with which the company has won international fame during the past few months in New York, Stratford, Brussels, Paris and other centers.

The Moliere plays are The Forced Marriage, Sganarelle, and The Jealousy of Barbou- It is indefensible on any grounds whatever, come So think of it. There seems to he a vague, shapeless fear that "irnperialiaU" will raise an unbearable uproar if audiences at concerts, plays and ballets are sparsd the necessity of getting to their feet and listening glumly to the anthem. Well, let's hear from the imperialists. If they Just roar for the sake of defending the status quo, we won't learn much. But if there are any real arguments to show that anything whatever is proved by this ges- Last Saturday we heard a model of concise criticism, based on solid aesthetic principles, expressed by a child unidentified child', as they say in the newa columns) in five words.

It was in the auditorium of Nepean High School, at a children's entertainment (the opening meeting of the Ottawa West Junior Music Club) presented by the Classical Ballet of Ottawa. The hall was well filled, and among the older children, who were club members, were many youngsters of under six years, who had been brought to see th ballet as a special treat. The lights went out, and the Labreche, Huauette Oligny, Denyse Saint Pierre, Georges Groulx and Jean Paul Jean-notte will also be in the farces. Mr. Dube's plsy, which has incidental music by Maurice Blackburn of the National Film Board, concerns an aging couple, Blanche and Virgile, who hold on to their modest home and lilac tree in the midst of commercial development by keeping boarders.

The impact of a new boarder, Vincsnt, on the lives of their threo original boarders, forms the wiibstance ct the play. i a I fi i irV'i' iM 'r I I i i ft hy- xvfj); y. i ViVv-'VjJV 1 I Cat 4 other than that Canadians haven't the gumption to re-examine their customs periodically, we'd be interested in hearing them. British concert audiences don't have to be interrupted in their anticipation of the an music began. But it was not ballet music, and there was .1 nothing to be seen on stage.

Nothing happened, in fact, ex Flamenco Guitarist cept for a piano being played nounced program by the play somewhere off stage, ana Benefit Concert For Opera Group Several well-known local and visiting guest artists will ap-1 pear at the Ottawa Grand Opera Association Benefit Con ing of the national anthem, everybody in the audience Carlos Montoya, renowned flamenco guitarist, will play at Glebe Collegiate on Friday, Nov. 14. He was famous first as a cafe guitarist in Madrid, then as accompanist for the dancer La Argentina, and then, since many years, as a soloist. Even the Royal (note: Royal) standing up in careful silence. ille.

Even to English-speaking audiences, these farces, as performed by the Montrealers, provide "buoyant a "healthy and brisk evening as healthy and brisk as a beautiful critics report. Prominent in the casts of all three farces is Guy Hoffmann, who plays the elderly lover (Sganarelle or his equivalent). Stratford audiences v-'U remember him for his part in Henry in 1956. Jiers in the company are Jean Louis Roux and Jean Gascon, the founders. They Then out of the darkness, from Opera House plays it only once, at the beginning of the season.

somewhere well behind us, and over the sound of the dutiful piano, came a very young Sings Samson Audiences of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera are treated with similar charity. They too hear (heir national anthem once, at the beginning of the season. It Isn't A Law child's voice: "I can't see the It is to be hoped that this clear eyed, outspoken critic will not be lectured into submission to our ridiculous mores. What she was expressing was a valid complaint. She had come prepared for the aesthetic experience of the ballet, and the intrusion of the national anthem was irrelevant Play By Montrealcr Members of the internationally famous Montreal group Le Theatre du Nouveau Monde as they appear in Lilac Time (Le Temps des Lilas), a play by the young Montreal author Marcel Dube, to be presented in Glebe Collegiate on Tuesday evening.

Left to right: Huguette Oligny, as Blanche; Jear, Gascon as Virgile, and Denyse Saint-Pierre as Johanne. On Monday the group will present three farces by Moliere. Canadians seem to think that they are bound by law to suf His Guitar Conjures Up Old Spain The famous Flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya will give a concert in the Gleba Collegiate Auditorium on Friday, Nov, 14. During the past few years Mr. Montoya, whose guitar telli of Spain's historic grandeur and emotional intensitj- has played in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, Nev York, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Rome and toured Japan, North Africa, Malaya and French InHo-China, fer in a way that is spared other nations.

This is not so. There's no law whatever that says that Morning Music Club audiences, or Little Theater audiences, or Choral Society or Orpheus or many other audiences should have this meaningless "test of Only custom and a custom that people are afraid cert Nov. 12 in the Technical School Auditorium. Robert Haydon of Montreal and New York will be guest tenor, accompanied by Evelyn Feldman. Cynthia Millman, pianist and gold medal winner at the 1958 C.N.E.

will appear on the program, and Roy Hay-den-Hinsley will present dramatic sketches. Members of the Association, who will be heard in operatic selections, will be Paulette Costello, mezzo-soprano, Matilda Lazarowich, soprano, and Peter-Emmanuel Collin, baritone. Evelyn Feldman and Antoinette Lajoie will be accompanists. Two ballets will be performed by the Classical Ballet Concert Group. All proceeds from the concert will be placed in the Opera Fund to assist in continuing the group's work.

(Information may be obtained from members of the Association or by telephoning PA 8-3361). In Opera And Oratorio Charles O'Neill, young tenor of the Metropolitan Opera and winner of the Metropolitan Audition of the Air last year, will sing the part of Samson in the Ottawa Choral Union Society's presentation of Handel's oratorio as the final concert of its season, April 29. Charles O'Neill appeared this summer in Samson and Delilah at the Chautauqua Opera and has been chosen by the Cincinnati Symphony to sing in Judas Maccabeus next March. The Ottawa Choral Society recently introduced 66 new members at a reception following its regular rehearsal. IU membership now stands at 160 the highest in its history, Rehearsals are in progress for Messiah and Creation which will be sung on Dec.

17 and Jan. 22 respectively. Pageantry Of Britain Ceremonial marching, piping, reels and strathspeys, and band music are all included on the program to be presented Wednesday evening, Nov. 5, at the Auditorium. The band is the Regimental Band of the Grenadier Guards, and the dancer, nd pipers are from the Scots Guards.

The program is generous and varied, and the following list of selections is by no means complete. The Band: Soldiers of the Queen, The British Grenadiers, Colonel Bogey, Scipio March, Viscount Nelson, El Capitan, Trombones to the Fore, Fantasia of English Airs, Song of the Brave, Trombones on Broadway, Nine Busy Fingers. Stars and 'Beauty' Has To Change 5 Costumes Karen McElheron, a radio and television performer who has acted with William Shatner, Barry Morse and John Drainie, finds her part in Ottawa Little Theater's The Love of Four -JV to examine rationally rules the people who make the de cision, "Oh, let's have the anthem anyway may be criticized if we The only, law on the subject Klemperer Returns Otto Klemperer, 74-year-old German conductor, will ie-turn to New York next season, after 18 years' absence, to conduct Tristan and Isol-. de at the Metropolitan Opera. was conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for six years.

41 relates to movie theaters, which are required to play the Stripes Forever, Abide With Me. Pipes and Drums: Hie'lan' Laddie, The Old Burnside. Caber Feidh, Pibroch O'Donald Dhu, Westering Home, Dovecote Park, Scotland the Brave. The Author, Marcel Dube Dancers. Highland Fling, Foursome Reel, Argyll Broad swords, sword Dance.

anthem once a day, either at the beginning or end of the performances, A strict interpretation of the rule would perhaps extend this necessity to all performances even concerts and live plays held in movie theaters. But this seems a case where authorities would point out the letter of the law only if they were cornered (by Calendar For November Following is list of music Colonels "more fun than anything she's ever done." At 19 years, Mrs. McElheron (her husband is artist James McElheron) began working for the CBC in Toronto after arriving from England at the age of 12. Soon she had her own summer program, Karen Discovers America. TV work came later, although Mrs.

McElheron still feels that radio is more her metier and may draw her back one day. As the Beauty in Four Colonels she has the opportunity of portraying five different types of women. The crude harshness of the American prostitute is the most difficult to capture, she said. "There are five costume changes in this part," she said, a wild-eyed imperialist, for instance). It is difficult to believe that there would be any official complaint if the Ot and drama events for the month of November, Nov.

1: Ottawa Music Club Joan Patenaude, soprano, Donald baritone, Cyn- tawa Philharmonic Orchestra, COir ii'Dra 1 i yt i i 1 1 i'oi na anthem tenl bateau Laurier. Nov. 15: Theater for Children, Hansel and Gretel, Glebe Collegip.ie. Nov. 15: Junior Music Club, Elaine Keillor, piano, National Museum.

Nov. 15: Dance pair, Alvarez and Carlotta, Technical School. Nov. 17: Ottawa Film Society, Camille, and a Charlie Chaplin short. National Museum.

Nov. 19: Tremblay Concert, National Orchestra of Mexico, Capitol Theater. II 1 YJL II JL JL JU Nov. 1: Theater for Children, Hansel and Gretel, Little Theater. Nov.

Fisher Park Community Theater, Our Town, Fisher Park High School. Nov. 2: Free concert by Ottawa Philharmonic group, Na- Of the gala opening concert. The national anthem is a fine ard noble thing, and its use on proper occasions can be very moving. But it is too fine a thing to be demeaned by improper use and made a cause of irritation.

Or, to put it another way, it is manifestly absurd that a group of people intent on enjoying Bach and Beethoven together should be accused of being unpatriotic if they resent having an irrelevance however worthy thrust on them. It seems to us that the little "if you include the negligee. She added, "if you don't include the negligee I'm sunk." The first in OLT's Festival series, The Love of Four Colonels runs from November 10-15. Barbara Meiklejohn Is directing the OLT production assisted by Mrs. Jean Nicholls and appearing in the cast are Faith Ward.

Basil Fitzgibbon, Edgard Demers, Ray Whalen, Nicholas Gwyn, Bruce Feather and Paul Morel. tional Gallery. Nov. 3: Theatre du Nouveau Monde, three Moliere farces, Glebe Collegiate. Nov.

4: Theatre du Nouveau Monde, Le Temps des Lilas, by Marcel Dube, Glebe Collegiate. y.ov. 5: Grenadier Guards girl at Nepean High School made a good point. It is indeed time to take a long look at our customs. L.

T. Nov. 20-22: Carleton University's musical, Bayroot Flowers, Technical School. Nov. 22: Theater for Children, Hansel and Gretel, Fisher Park High School.

Nov. 22: Ottawa West Junior Music Club, Nepean High School. Nov. 24: Morning Music Club, Joerg Demus, pianist. Glebe Collegiate.

Nov. Festival of one-act plays, Department of Recreation and Parks, Britannia Park. Nov. 28: Canadian Players, As You Like It, (matinee and 1 in a few short months, under the guidance of the distinguished conductor, Thomas Mayer, the Ottrwa-Hull community achieved one of its ambitions, and The Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra was rebuilt and became one of the outstanding- musical orf animations of this country. Devote Program To B.

Britten The second broadcast in the Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra's Friday afternoon concerts on the Trans-Canada network of the CBC will be given on Nov. 7 at 3.30 p.m. The program will be devoted to work of Benjamin Britten a Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29; Two Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes; and the Lute Song and Courtly Dances from Gloriana. Band and Scots Guards, Auditorium.

Nov. 8: Music in Elementary Schools, Workshop, Elgin Street School. Nov. 8: Ottawa Film Society Seven Samurai, Elgin Theater. Nov.

8: Theater for Children, Hansel and Gretel, Glebe Collegiate. Nov. 9: Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Mayer, with Kendall Taylor, pianist, Capitol Theater. Nov. 9-15: Ottawa Little Theater, The Love of Four Colonels.

Nov. 12: Ottawa Grand Opera Association Benefit Concert, Technical School. Nov. 12: Lecture, Folk Songs of Ontario, Edith Fowke, National Museum. This is rightfully a matter of great pride to the people of the Ottawa district, because It was their generous support and sponsorship which made this possible.

evening performances) Glebe Collegiate. Nov. 29: Canadian riayers, The Devil's Disciple, Glebe Collegiate. Nov. 30: Ottawa Film Society, This Strange Passion, Elgin Theater.

The contribution of The Philharmonic to the artistic and cultural life of the Capital City will continue to grow over twenty- special concerts will be given in the schools apart altogether from the main concerts In the Capitol Theatre. This is something that is of direct and indirect benefit to every citizen and business institution, and an important antidote to many adverse influences which beset our modern living. Nov. 14: Jeunesses Music-ales, Bernard Michelin, cello, Charles Reiner, piano, Academic Hall of the University of Ottawa. Nov.

14: Carlos Montoya, guitarist, Glebe Collegiate. rj. Matinee For J.S. Students On (he request of Ottawa's secondary schools, the Canadian Players, due here Xov. 28 and 29, have agreed to do a school matinee of As You Like It.

on Friday, Nov. 23. The high scnools have divided the tickets on a quota basis, and a full house Is expected. The Players, sponsored in Ottawa by the Theater Foundation, will present As You Like It for the general public on Friday evening, and on Saturday evening, Nov. 29, will do (he Shaw play The Devil's Disciple.

A responsibility rests on the people of the Capital city of Canada and of this whole area to give a lead In cultural as well as political affairs, and the continued and firm financial support of public spirited men and women and business concerns is essential if the high standards of The Philharmonic are to be maintained and its still more ambitious objectives attained. Seat reservations for the coming six concerts have come In In greater volume than ever before, but even the "SOLD OCT" anticipated will less than half meet the Orchestra's budget. Theatres have to be rented and transportation and other out of pocket expenses paid. Musicians must eat and be paid. Over 75 of air costs are accounted for by mustafaiM saUH-n.

To balance Its budget The Orchestra must look to public spirited people and institutions who take a genuine pride In the reputation and standing of their community. -4, To Play Here Nov. 15 Elaine Keillor, 18-year-old Hamilton pianist, who is booked to play with the Buffalo Philharmonic in February, will be the guest soloist for the opening concert of the Junior -Music Club on Nov. 15, at 2.45 p.m., in the National Museum. She had her ARCT at age 11, played with the Hamilton Philharmonic at age 16, and this fall is giving a series of eight solo recitals in her home town.

First Meeting The Ottawa Music Club will hold this season's first meeting at the Convention Hall of the Chateau Laurier this afternoon with a concert by Joan Patenaude, soprano, Cynthia Mill-man, piano, and Donald Burton, baritone. The concert begins al 4 p.m. 3 Free Concerts At Orchestra Week The OTTAWA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Soloist At First Concert Kendall Taylor, British pianist, who will be soloist in Beethoven's Concerto No. 5 (The Emperor) with the Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra at the opening concert on Nov. 10, in the Capitol Theater.

Mr. Taylor, who was adjudicator of piano classes in the 1956 Ottawa Music Festival, and vho will "Keep those fiddles ploying Next week, Nov. 2-8, has been designated Orchestra Week in with the approval of Mayor Nelms. In a letter to L. C.

Annette, president of the Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra, Mayor Nclms complimented the or chestra "on its remarkable achievements during the past year, and on tha exciting pro-cram in prospect for the coming season." The immediate program calls fnr several concerts by small groups from the orchestra, beginning tcmorrow. Sunday, in the National Gallery. Two noontime concerts will be given In downtown buildings one on Tuesday at 12.30 m. in the Center Block of the Parliament Buildings, and the second (with the same program) on Thursday, at 12.30, in the lounse of the Metropolitan Life Building. These concerts are arranged with the help of the Musicians' Union and through a grant from the Canada Council.

All are free to the public. The group playing at 4 p.m. at the National Gallery tomorrow consists of Janict Jamie-son, violin, Helmut Seemann, flute, Robert Verebes, viola, and Joyce Sands, 'rello. Their program will be as follows: Sfrpnrtc In I Mjor, p. 8 Bmhnven Mf.rcin, Ailrlo llegro moltu.

Andante quel allcirpito, Mrci Serenade 1st Movement Rrgr Dohnanyl Mama. Ramans, Rondo Dlvrrttmcmo tn Major Maeart Allodia, Andante, Presto i'he group playing at the noontime concerts is headed by William Amtmann, and includes Flora Goulden, Frederic Pohl, Michael Stevens and Ibolyka Gyarras, violins; Eliane Jriiii-quet, viola; Francoisv Vetter, cello; A. K. Beloglazous, bass; Alex Finlayson, flute; Donald Wyrnan, clarinet; Peter Schei-ber, bassoon; and Horst Mueller, French horn. The program for both Tuesday and Thursday i as follows: Introduction nd Fugue Hndel-Bpchm Overture to Idomeneo Mozart Entr'acte from Rnamunde Schuhrrt Slavonic Doce I Dvon.k Galop tfrntn Msiqueradr) KnachaturUtl LltU Suite on Canadian Folk Son? Harry Somerf (I t.ukey'a Boat She'i th Swallow (c) Ab moine voulalt danscr give a Town Hall recital in New York on Nov.

7, made his first public appearance when he was six, playing with his father, who was a well-known cellist. When he was only 12 he played a Mozart concerto with orchestra. Since 1947 he has plyed with leading orchestras throughout Europe, as well as in Britain. He played ence before s'ith Mayer, now conductor of the Ottawa Philharmonic; this was in 11j56, when Mr. Mayer was conductor of the Halifax Symphony.

During the next few weeks manv citizens in Ottawa and Hull will be canvassed in person or bv letter for financial support to The Philharmonic Orchestra. If you are not one of these being peisonaiiy canvassed, will you take the initiative into your own bands and send your contribution to The Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra, P.O. Box 383, Ottawa. A receipt for income tax purposes will be mailed you..